In the heat of a testy exchange with a hostile journalist, the White House press spokesman insisted that “Congress ... does not have constitutional oversight responsibility over the White House.”

This patently untrue defense of unaccountable presidential power was not offered by former Obama administration spokesman Jay Carney – although it certainly could have been. It was actually made by the late Tony Snow while he was working as the press spokesman for George W. Bush in 2007.

Republican congressional leaders, and conservative media figures, are properly outraged over Barack Obama's persistent use of executive orders and signing statements to circumvent what he characterizes as an obstructionist Congress. They have either forgotten or chosen to ignore the fact that George W. Bush issued more than 150 signing statements dealing with both domestic and international affairs. By issuing each of those statements, Bush was announcing his intention not to execute faithfully the measure he had just signed into law.

Barack Obama's insouciant disregard for the limits of his office is well-known, and entirely contemptible. He famously said that because he has a pen and a telephone, he doesn't need congressional cooperation. This is the attitude of an impenitent tyrant – and Obama learned it, in significant ways, from his Republican predecessor.